Archives for November 5, 2012

You’ve no doubt had your fill of phone calls, TV ads, and former friends calling you stupid and hating your guts for taking a different political stand than they. I would say that this has been a particularly pernicious presidential election, but I would be lying. It’s just like all the rest. Recent wounds are more vivid than old scars, as it were.

I’m going to voice my opinion here, and if you don’t want to read it, no one’s holding a gun to your head. This is my opinion and mine only. I’m not telling you to adopt it, so please shitcan the comments about how stupid or misguided I am. If you want to refute what I posit, fine. Just skip the ad hominem crap or I’ll delete your comment.

Other blogs will tiptoe right around this important subject, but you know this turkey too well to think that he wouldn’t bludgeon you with his opinion.

Selecting a president and a platform is not like trying to be on the winning side of a football game. When the final gun sounds, the football game is over and of no lasting consequence to the fans. This isn’t about bragging rights. It is about seriously considering our future as a cohesive, viable, and vital country.

Some say it is too late, that the country cannot be saved. That’s a lazy philosophy, one that will result in no good. The current administration has attempted to anesthetize the masses with its handout policies, its promotion of wealth envy, its pro-union brotherhood, and its anti-business orientation. The resulting placated passivity, coupled with individual greed and desire for “free stuff” without commensurate individual responsibility is a highly undesireable, burgeoning national psyche that must be treated aggressively.

When I think of “four more years”, I think of the way in which Obamacare was passed, against the wishes of most citizens, with Nancy Pelosi ginning up votes by telling the public that we have to “pass it in order to see what’s in it” instead of allowing ample time for study.

When I think of “four more years”, I think of cherry deals for both U.S. and Canadian auto workers’ unions to “save Chrysler”, while screwing bond holders, including many state pension plans.

When I think of “four more years”, I think of divisiveness, creating and emphasizing artificial gaps between rich and poor, polarizing people against business, and using the furor to create stifling regulations via bloated Executive Branch departments that circumvent congressional checks and balances.

When I think of “four more years”, I think of expanding unemployment rolls, more formerly productive workers on the dole, counterproductive extensions of unemployment compensation, paying people not to work, then paying tongue-in-cheek lip service to “creating new jobs”.

When I think of “four more years”, I think of anti-bipartisan spirit in federal government, the “my way or the highway” mentality, the contempt this administration has shown for the ideas and thoughts of its opposition, the desire to stifle rather than compromise. Is it any wonder why this president has not been able to ram a single budget through congress? Even his own kind have rejected his lavish spending.

When I think of “four more years”, I think of how much weaker this nation will be at home and abroad given the weak leadership from this president and his selected henchmen. I think of how the primary orientation from the start has been to campaign first, and govern second.

When I think of “four more years”, I think of how this country will collapse under the weight of its accumulated debt if the profligate spending continues, entitlements are not dealt with, and continued draconian regulation, union favoritism, and disincentives to employment conspire to further compromise productivity.

When I think of “four more years”, I think about what effects the forthcoming “fiscal cliff” will impose upon the economy.

When I think of “four more years”, I think of how the middle class is en prise. The masses that once made us the greatest, most productive nation on earth are gradually being transformed into handout seeking drones as rights, property, and prerogatives are usurped.

When I think of “four more years”, I think of how “me first” issues like abortion, gay marriage, immigration control, and “free stuff” have become dominant over the real issue of how to preserve this great nation. If we neglect to keep our eyes on the ball, we’ll lose the game.

Obviously, I could go on. The problem is that when I thought through the dubious accomplishments of the past four years, I could come up with nothing positive. Nothing at all. Sure, the incumbent was handed a “mess”, as he’ll be the first to tell you, but he volunteered for the job, and no one said it would be easy. He wants an “incomplete” grade, because he wants us to believe that in “four more years” he can fix everything he either neglected to fix or screwed up further during his first four years. As I recall, the only “incomplete” grades that were valid were caused by illness or personal hardship; this, on the other hand, would be like one of those “I” grades that is a negotiated attempt to avoid an “F” by extending the amount of time to complete a class most others worked through in the time allotted. Obama has earned a solid “F”. Let us not give him his requested incomplete. He’s out of excuses. Four more years will only leave us in deeper doo-doo when he’s done. Wasn’t he the guy who once told us that if he couldn’t get the job done in four years, he would be a one-term president?

His penchant for averting congress, coupled with his being a lame duck would be disastrous during a second four years. Imagine an unrestrained Obama tightening the noose around energy companies so he can fund his pet renewable projects, costing all of us megabucks on our energy bills and at the gas pump. That’s just one area.

Think about the one thing he can control with impunity—foreign policy. With the Senate expected to remain under Democratic control, Obama and a compliant Senate can manhandle U.S. policy abroad. This is what he was referring to when he told Dmitri Medvedev that “after the election [he’ll] have more flexibility.” I can foresee concessions and kowtowing abroad that will further weaken us and perhaps imperil us as a nation.

Mitt Romney isn’t perfect. Like all politicians, he has flip-flopped on some issues that have been notoriously bandied about by the media. Of course, Obama has done the same, but being a media darling, he has gotten away with it by and large. We all change our mind. Our positions evolve as conditions change. Politicians are certainly bent on being elected, so they respond to what the traffic will bear. Frankly, I could care less about whether Mitt Romney ever mentioned overturning Roe v. Wade or Obama was once opposed to gay marriage.

Unlike the incumbent, Mitt Romney has successfully run a large business. We are a capitalist nation, and it is capitalism, not socialism that has made us strong. Yes, some capitalists are driven by greed, but then again, if we’re condemning people for greed, how about condemning half the populace — those who espouse the “free stuff” mentality, as well?

Unlike the incumbent, Mitt Romney has successfully run a major state. Being an executive requires people skills, the ability to compromise, and “thinking outside the box.” Mitt Romney has demonstrated these qualities throughout his lifetime. Obama has been a community organizer and what else? Not even a full term as U.S. senator. A failed first term as President of the United States. His resume doesn’t portray him as the better candidate.

Mitt Romney is not George W. Bush and the times now are quite different from that which they were in 2000. Twelve years later, we’ve suffered through some pretty bad shit, at the behest of Obama, Bush, and their predecessors. The past four years of exponentially increasing debt, decreased world status, and mean-spirited partisan politics did not cure anything, they exacerbated what was already bad. Obama’s excuses don’t wash. It’s a tough job. He screwed it up.

I hope that we can find some new hope in Mitt Romney, hope that we thought we were getting when we bought the “Hope and Change” line the incumbent pandered. Hoping against hope, maybe, but sticking with the incumbent gives us no hope at all.

It will be a long road back. I believe Mitt Romney will work hard to bring in ideas from all quarters, as one must do to succeed in business. I believe that a Mitt Romney administration will not compromise progress for the sake of ideology. I believe that with a strong leader we can trust — and yes, I believe that Mitt Romney is sincere and trustworthy — we can unite to better shoulder the hardships that are as inevitable during a national rebuilding effort as the are during a football teams rebuilding effort.

The Nittany Turkey endorses Mitt Romney for President of the United States.

 

P.S.

No matter for whom you cast your ballot, please exercise your right and responsibility to vote, damnit!